The Dallas Mavericks made a bold move at the trade deadline when they decided to acquire Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets.
The Mavericks already had a dominant ballhandler in Luka Doncic, so adding Irving raised questions about how the two would be able to share the basketball effectively.
The pairing had its moments, but ultimately the experiment failed as Dallas missed the playoffs entirely.
Despite the questionable fit, the Mavericks had no choice but to re-sign Irving in the summer as they couldn’t risk losing him for nothing in free agency.
Heading into the 2023-24 season, Dallas is hoping that Doncic and Irving can build more chemistry on the floor and get back into the postseason.
Although the organization is surely hopeful that the two can work together, former NBA players like Kenyon Martin aren’t holding their breath via Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.
“It is what it is, man,” Martin said. “It’s hasn’t worked yet, so we’ll see.”
Martin was born in Saginaw, MI but grew up in Dallas so he has seen plenty of Mavericks basketball in his lifetime.
Like a lot of Dallas fans, Martin appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach on the Doncic-Irving tandem and that’s likely the correct move given they have yet to really show they can compete with the rest of the Western Conference,
There’s no denying the offensive talent of the two and how devastating they can be, but it’ll be up to head coach Jason Kidd and his coaching staff to figure out ways to bring out the best in both of them.
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